Player's Dad Hit With Fine, Probation

The Former Seminole Sheriff's Official Tipped Off The Ucf Football Team About A Federal Probe Of Cell-phone Use.

April 29, 1998|By Jim Leusner of The Sentinel Staff

A football player's father was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation for his role in alerting University of Central Florida players to an investigation of illegal cellular telephones - and then lying about it.

David Smith, a former top sheriff's official in Seminole County, had pleaded guilty in February to one felony count of making false statements to federal agents and prosecutors last fall.

U.S. District Judge Anne Conway, who sentenced Smith, also fined him $2,000.

Smith has admitted passing along gossip from an Orange County deputy sheriff that UCF football players were being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. He told Gene McDowell, then head coach, who tipped players through captain Emory Green.

Only four of 17 suspected phones were found, but McDowell later bragged he knew about the search in advance. That touched off a second federal probe in which Smith, McDowell and several players initially lied, court records show.

McDowell, who resigned in January, also pleaded guilty to making false statements. He is awaiting sentencing.

During Tuesday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Hawkins Collazo said that despite his early lies, Smith eventually told the truth and persuaded players to cooperate with authorities.

``But for the timely assistance of the defendant ... talking to UCF players ... the case against Mr. McDowell would have been quite different,'' Collazo told the judge.

Defense lawyers Larry Colleton and Buck Blankner persuaded Conway to give Smith unsupervised probation. They said he had never been in trouble before and had endured public and professional humiliation.

Smith, 46, resigned his post as director of the Seminole sheriff's juvenile crime programs in January. Collazo and Blankner said Smith became involved in the phone case partly because he was the father of UCF running back Maurice Smith.

In a related sentencing Tuesday, a former AT&T Wireless Services employee was sentenced to one year's probation and 25 hours of community service. Nikisha Bronson, 19, also was ordered to make $13,847 in restitution for her part in the fraud scam.

The Windermere woman, daughter of Orange County Circuit Judge Theotis Bronson, admitted removing cellular phone numbers from AT&T billing computers. Her then-boyfriend, former UCF player Patrick Brinson, has pleaded guilty to using those numbers to sell cellular phone service illegally to several current and former UCF players.

Bronson's attorney, Warren Lindsey, argued that the woman had low self-esteem and only participated in the scheme because she was asked by Brinson.

In an unusual move, U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett ordered Bronson, a community college student, to write a monthly letter to her probation officer about ``honesty and standing up in your life.'' She was ordered to undergo counseling.

``You come with gifts that probably no one else in this room has,'' Fawsett said. ``The letters I've received and the presentence report leads me to believe you have problems believing in yourself.''